National park rangers... can be lonely and very friendly!

Just got home from a trip that included visits to some of our National Parks... I didn't appreciate before that, while some parks have many visitors and lots of park rangers, others are out-of-the-way places with few visitors and little-to-no regular staff.

So, in the middle of this trip, I drove up to a scenic overlook in the middle of nowhere, and was surprised to find a park ranger standing around by himself (not at all bad looking either, especially in his uniform). At first, I thought he was just happy to see another person -- he talked a lot about the park, the area, made suggestions about what else was worth seeing, etc.

Afterward, I stopped at the parks information center for a while, and then took his suggestion and drove off to another scenic location for a short hike back into a canyon. ... and there was the same ranger, standing around near the start of the trail.

I can be pretty clueless about these things but, at this point, even I started to wonder... he seemed to be showing a lot of interest in showing me around.

Long story short (too late) -- we walked the trail together, got to know each other a bit, and I got to stay the night in a park rangers cabin. And, for the record, nature was very generous to this particular ranger.

Haha hot story. That reminds me. I was recently in Iowa and made a pit stop on the road at the Herbert Hoover national historic site (weird i know. lol). I was walking around looking at the various artifacts and buildings they had collected dealing with hoover and his family when i walked stepped in this tiny little cottage (we're talking tiny) which had been where the former president had been born and found sitting on a tiny bench off to the side the hottest park ranger I had ever seen. The youngest too at probably 25-27. very handsome in his khaki colored uniform. He looked so bored and pretty excited to see me (the weather had been pretty bad and there was me and a friend were about the only ones there) If I hadn't have been visiting with someone I would have love to talked to this boy a bit more and maybe have a little fun. haha